Photographer Lee
Miller and Kotex
menstrual pads

Not only did the photographer
Lee Miller appear as the first real
person in an ad for menstrual
hygiene (July 1928, below
left) - is this
woman the second? - she is
probably the most important.
It happened right before she
started her own artistic career,
and the series of ads, by causing
such a fuss in America, might have
helped that career by giving her a
reason to go to Europe, in 1929,
escaping the U.S.A. for the
sophistication of Europe - and
American Surrealist painter and
photographer Man Ray.
(See much more of her life and
work at the Lee
Miller
archive and in a New
Yorker magazine story in the 21
January 2008 issue. The
Philadelphia Museum of Art
exhibited her work from 26
January to 27 April 2008.)

Six
pictures, long download!

Above and right:
Edward Steichen took this photo of
Miller in 1928 and sold it to
Kotex, making her the first actual
person to appear in a ad for
menstrual hygiene (above, in
McCall's magazine [U.S.A.], July
1928; at right, in Delineator
magazine [U.S.A.], March 1929).
She had signed the model release,
so it was legal, but she was
mortified, as were many
Americans. (Note the
ironic quote, at top, in the left
ad.) But by December, 1928, Miller
was happy to have broken a taboo,
and left soon afterwards for Paris
with a girlfriend.

Above:
Read the main text in
an enlarged view of this ad from
Delineator magazine (U.S.A.),
March 1929.

Concern about a
pad's visibility underneath
clothing reaches from before this
era to today. Most women want to
conceal the time of their
menstruation, at least in America.
In regions where women use menstrual
huts, as well as where
public ceremonies are held (in Bali,
for example), women broadcast
their periods. Concealing timing
greatly reduces discrimination
based on menstruation.

(c) Lee Miller Archive, All
rights reserved.

Steichen made up for his action
by providing an introduction for
Miller to Man
Ray, the American
Surrealist painter and
photographer living in Paris (above right,
in a photo by Miller). They became
lovers and friends, and together
invented the "Rayogram," an
example of which is Ray's photo of
Miller, above
left, probably taken in
1929, the year the ad at right,
above, appeared.

Miller pursued her own career,
becoming famous as a photographer
for Vogue
magazine in Europe during and
after World War II (below).

(c)
Lee Miller Archive,
All rights reserved.

The
daughter of the mayor of
Leipzig, Germany,
poisoned herself in 1945
as the Allies
approached; Miller took
this photo.

(c)
Lee Miller Archive,
All rights reserved.

Miller
wears a special helmet
to accommodate her
camera as a war
correspondent in World
War II. (The
photographer is
unknown.)